"It was a gut-check win," said head coach Alvin Gentry after the game. It was also exactly what the team needed after dropping the home opener just 48 hours earlier.
All training camp, through the pre-season the Suns, and now into the regular season the team searched for an identity on offense through the duo of Goran Dragic and Michael Beasley, but it should come as no surprise that another twosome came on strong against the Pistons.
With their familiarity playing together in Houston over the past season and a half Dragic and Luis Scola are not only comfortable together, but play very well off of each other.
When they began to click in the second quarter the offense had a new flow that gave Michael Beasley comfort, "it’s easy, it is just easy when you have a guy like Dragic. When you got a guy like Goran coming off of a screen aggressive as he as he is and a guy like Scola rolling to the basket there is no room for a double team. It is just easy. I got either a shot or a drive to the basket."
With those three clicking the confidence oozed out to Shannon Brown who got hot in a hurry scoring 10 points (5-8 shooting) in the fourth quarter. Coach Gentry liked the play-making he received out of Brown, "whatever he did I hope he keeps it locked up and uses it every night. He is one of the guys on the team that can create his own shot."
All in all this game brought the team to .500 and showed signs of life in the offense with Dragic and Scola playing the two man game and Beasley drafting off of them as a third scorer off the ball. It is a small sample size with only two games, but the team is shaping their identity as a scrappy defensive team led in all facets by Dragic.
The defense is in place, the rebounding is working itself out, and there are signs of life as the team heads out on the road to face the Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, and the Charlotte Bobcats next week.